Arkansas Volleyball Fact Sheet #10

BY ANDRES FOCIL

Second Time’s the CharmArkansas and the of the league starts back through the Southeastern Conference schedule meeting teams for the second time this year. The Lady’Backs opened the 2006 SEC season at Kentucky followed by a match at then No. 13 Tennessee. Arkansas dropped both of those matches and avenged those losses with big home wins over both teams. Arkansas travels to South Carolina and Georgia this weekend. The Lady’Backs won both of the first meetings, downing the Gamecocks in four and the Bulldogs in three in Barnhill Arena.Koleva posts career-best in winSenior Denitza Koleva had a career-best 29 kills in the win over Kentucky Sunday. She had 64 total attempts and hit .264 for Arkansas in the four-game win.More about KolevaDenitza Koleva also holds the top five spots for points in a match this season highlighted by a pair of 22.5 point performances. The first came against Sacramento State and the second came at Auburn. She had 22.0 against Mississippi and 20.0 against nationally-ranked LSU and Tennessee.The doubles continue for KolevaArkansas senior Denitza Koleva continues to both hit and dig well. Koleva has had nine consecutive double-doubles and 16 in Arkansas’ 20 matches. She began the year with six consecutive doubles. Koleva posted a then- season-best 19 kills twice this year (Sacramento State and Mississippi) and a then-season-high 20 digs against Stephen F. Austin. Koleva improved on the season-bests with 21 kills and 22 digs at Auburn and again bettered her numbers with a career-best 29 kills against Kentucky.Fans support ArkansasThe Lady Razorbacks have enjoyed bigger crowds in their recent matches. Arkansas welcomed 876 people for the win over No. 25 Tennessee and 851 for the victory over Kentucky. The Lady’Backs also had 792 for the Georgia match.Double-doubles for othersIn addition to Koleva’s back-to-back double-doubles last weekend, Jessica Dorrell had a double against No. 25 Tennessee with 12 kills and 11 digs. Kele Brewer added her second double of the year against Kentucky with 10 kills and 10 digs. See the list at the bottom of this page.Win Number 300The Arkansas volleyball program began in 1994 and began the 2006 season with 288 total wins. The Lady’Backs have 12 wins in 2006 bringing the total to 300. Arkansas is 149-46 all-time in Southeastern Conference matches and head coach Chris Poole’s career record is 534-205.Career NumbersSeveral Lady Razorbacks are climbing in the record books. The complete career top 10 is listed later in this release. Here’s a couple key categories of note.KillsSenior Denitza Koleva became the 10th player in school history to record her career 1,000th kill last year and she has steadily moved up the top 10 list into the number three spot this week. Teammate and fellow senior Kele Brewer soon followed with her 1000th kill in 2005 and is now 10th with 1164. Also climbing: Jessica Dorrell is 16th with 734 and Amy Allison is 17th with 683.DigsJunior Ashley Miller is on track to completely rewrite the Arkansas dig records. Miller holds the single match record with 36 recently set against Mississippi in 2006 and ranks first in career digs per game with a 4.30 average. She also became the six player in school history to reach 1,000 career digs and is currently second all-time and is on pace to rank first by the end of the 2006 season. Senior Denitza Koleva is the only other Lady’Back to rank in the top 20. She is ninth with 957 career digs.Total BlocksSenior Amy Allison continues to move up the blocking records. Allison ranks ninth in block solos with 57. Senior Denitza Koleva is 18th with 18. Allison is fifth on the block assists list with 412, followed by Jessica Dorrell who is 10th with 293, and Koleva who is 16th with 223. Allison leads the team in total blocks as well with 469 to rank fourth all-time. Dorrell is 12th with 299 and Koleva is 17th with 241.Digs and KillsAthletes who finish their careers in the top 10 statistically in any given category can look back on their accomplishment with satisfaction. Arkansas has several players who rank in the top 10 in more than one category – specifically kills and digs. Senior Denitza Koleva is the most recent addition to the list.How about three?If you look at the note above, you realize what an exclusive group it is to rank in the top 10 for both digs and kills. What if you throw in service aces? Kim Storey, Denitza Koleva, Jamie Rohme, Krystal Osborne and Yarleen Santiago remain.That’s too much!Let’s add total blocks. Kim Storey and Yarleen Santiago are the only two Lady’Backs in the history of the program to rank in the top 10 in all four categories. However, Denitza Koleva, Jamie Rohme and Krystal Osborne are all in the top 20 for total blocks with Koleva (the only current player on the list) ranking 17th in total blocks.Can we please play at home?That’s what a lot of SEC teams are saying this week. The league is a combined 46-22 in SEC matches on their home courts this year. SEC teams are 77-32 in all matches at home this year. Florida is a perfect 11-0 at home while LSU is 8-1.About South CarolinaSouth Carolina got out to a good start overall and in SEC play this year and they enter the weekend with a 12-11/5-7 SEC mark. The Gamecocks picked up a big SEC win over Auburn in five games in Alabama last weekend but have been a bit inconsistent since going 7-1 in the preseason. Carolina has two wins over Auburn, a team that defeated Arkansas in five, and upset No. 6 Florida in one of the biggest wins in recent history. SC is hitting .230 as a team lead by Shonda Cole who is hitting .308 with a team-best 5.74 kills per game. Cole is nearly as good in SEC matches hitting .269 with 5.67 kpg.Arkansas versus the GamecocksArkansas leads the all-time series with South Carolina 12-6 and the Lady’Backs have won the last two meetings. The last meeting between these teams in Columbia, however, went South Carolina’s way.Last time against SC FAYETTEVILLE – The University of Arkansas recorded 20 total blocks downing South Carolina in four games in Southeastern Conference volleyball action in Barnhill Arena Sunday. The 30-23, 30-23, 28-30, 30-24 win improved the Lady’Backs to 9-3 on the year and evened Arkansas’ SEC record to 2-2 while Carolina fell to 9-6 and 2-2 in the SEC. Freshman Destiny Clark paced the blocking effort with a career-best 12 blocks while senior Amy Allison added eight and sophomore Christina Lawrence had seven. The 20 team total blocks ranks tied for fifth all-time in school history while Clark’s total ties for seventh. A lot of other things went right for Arkansas Sunday as well. The Lady’Backs out-hit South Carolina, .222-.091 and had three players in double-figure kills led by 18 from senior Denitza Koleva. Koleva hit .333 with a team-leading 15 digs for Arkansas. Allison added 11 kills and Lawrence had 10 in the Lady’Back win.About GeorgiaThe Bulldogs have struggled a bit this year and enter the weekend with a 6-16 record. They are 2-10 in the SEC with wins over Mississippi State in five and Auburn in four. Georgia had an eight match losing streak and has lost 10 of its last 12 contests. Maria Taylor leads the team with 333 kills and 4.22 kills per game. She is hitting .207 – well above the team average of .191 this year.Arkansas versus the BulldogsArkansas is 10-4 all-time against Georgia and the Lady’Backs have won the last two meetings. In addition Arkansas has won six of the last seven including a three-game win in Fayetteville earlier this year.Last time against Georgia FAYETTEVILLE – University of Arkansas senior Amy Allison and freshman Destiny Clark combined for 18 kills in a dominating three-game Southeastern Conference volleyball win over Georgia in Barnhill Arena Friday. The largest crowd of the year (792) witnessed Allison hit .526 with 11 kills and seven blocks while Clark hit .875 with seven kills in eight attempts as the Lady’Backs (8-3, 1-2 SEC) downed Georgia (4-9, 0-3 SEC) 30-20, 30-24, 30-18. Allison dominated play in the first frame hitting .857 with six kills in seven attempts. She added three blocks leading Arkansas to the 10-point win.Days of the weekArkansas has yet to win a match (this year) in the month of October. The Lady’Backs are 0-5 heading into the Tennessee/Kentucky weekend. Arkansas faces Tennessee on Friday where they are 121-50 all-time. Arkansas takes on Kentucky on Sunday when Arkansas is 83-32 all-time. Here’s a look at some of the numbers.New look Lady’Backs – sort ofArkansas has used six different starting lineups with various degrees of succes this year. Most recently Arkansas started Denitza Koleva, Lindsay Scanlan, Jessica Dorrell, Christina Lawrence, Amy Allison, Kele Brewer and Ashley Miller getting a pair of wins over No. 25 Tennessee and Kentucky.But they’ve used that beforeYes, Arkansas has started those seven five times but the difference in the last two matches is where the players start on the court. Arkansas has moved Brewer and Dorrell back to their “natural” positions with Brewer playing full rotation instead of Dorrell. The result was a double-double for Dorrell on Friday and a double-double for Brewer on Sunday.